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Your Highest Value Skill is NOT sales

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Your Highest Value Skill is NOT Sales.

Some business gurus are telling people that they need to develop their Highest Value or most valuable skills.That part is right! You need to focus on the skill that will give you the highest return on your efforts.

What they got wrong is that they are teaching that it is sales. Sales is important, but its not the first step.

Your network is. You can’t sell unless you have someone to sell to. And the level of your network will determine the level of the people who you get to sell to. Lastly I would also suggest that sales is not the most valuable thing your network could offer you either. You will find that networking to sell is the weakest kind of networking. Instead network to find more valuable things. Most of the time in life and business your highest value skills and assets are things that will give you long term returns not a short term sale or commission.

Here are 4 to think about:

1) Support and resources 

Who in your network can help yu with the things you need to grow your business. This can be education and mentorship, financial support, help implementing systems or even introductions to other people. There is truth to the russian proverb which states, “It is better to have a 100 friends than 1000 rubles.”

2)Opportunities 

Most of the big opportunities in my life have come through other people. Some of these opportunities have been to attend or speak at big events, become involved in excellent investment opportunities or attend high level events or meet celebrities. Recently one of my contacts in the UK invited me to have tea at Kensington Palace with the Royals and attend ASCOT. Your best opportunities in life will come through those you know.

3)Team members or business systems

At high level networking events it is not uncommon to meet people with specialized skillset who are very successful at what they do. These opportunities are fantastic occasions to find people, services or systems that you can use to strengthen your own business.

4) Customers (but not in the way you think) 

Low level networkers look for single individual customers — you need to look for people to collaborate with that have large groups of your customers.)

Again sales is an important skill, but it isn’t the one that will create the most wealth or success for you. The skill you need to develop is your ability to build a higher level network.

Hope this is helpful.

#douglasvermeeren #highestvalueskill #1businessskill #topbusinessskill #entrepreneurofinfluence #moderndaynapoleonhill #businessnetworking #networking #networkingtips

6 Networking mistakes that Business Owners make

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Entrepreneur of Influence and Effective meetings

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Entrepreneur of Influence and effective meetings

By Douglas Vermeeren

Meeting are required for operating an effective meeting. Some of these meeting swill be with potential clients, hiring people to help and support your business, potential partnerships and joint ventures and to train your staff to implement new strategies and take over jobs you need to delegate. Whatever the purpose of the meetings they need to be effective if your business is going to thrive.

For those of you familiar with our Entrepreneur Influence program you will know that I had the chance to observe and learn first hand from more than 400 of the worlds top achievers. Some of the companies whose leaders I was privileged to learn from included FedEx, nike, Fruit of the Loom, Uber, UGG boots, Disney, JW Marriott and others. In this relationship of learning I was able to observe how they prepared for and participated in meetings.

The following suggestions will help you to make your meeting more effective and valuable for you:

1) All meetings should have a clear outlined purpose. One of the top achievers that learned from stated it this way, “We don’t attend meetings without a purpose and we don’t attend unprepared.” Speaking to the point of purpose first, all meetings must have an objective. I see many entrepreneurs who will accept and participate in nearly any meeting that any one wants to have. This included meetings with a client. Many small business owners and entrepreneurs take meetings too easily and too quickly. They meet with anyone who could be a potential client or relationship without qualifying that individual and without determining a purpose for the meeting.

Everyone in the meeting should be aware of and in harmony with the purpose. The more all involved are moving in the same direction and with the same conviction the more powerful and effective your meetings will be.

If you come to the meeting in a careless and casual way your results will be the same way.

You can’t create results without creating a purpose.

2) All meetings should be timely — What I mean by this is that all meetings should be at the right time and have a time limit. Firstly, what I mean by the right time is that meetings should be in their proper sequence and when those in the meeting are in a position to act on things. Part of this can be described as qualifying. For example, you wouldn’t meeting with a customer who is not ready to make a decision. But I also see many entrepreneurs who meet with potential services even though they are not yet in a position to hire those services. They claim they are just doing research. Why would you research services in an ever changing marketplace if you are not ready to act. Research when you are ready. Have meetings when you are ready to take action.

Another important consideration is to take the appropriate time to have your meeting. As I interviewed the worlds top business achievers I had one of these leaders teach me this lesson in a unique way. When I first approached him I asked if I could have fifteen minutes of his time. I believed that asking for less time would make it more likely that he would say yes to meet with me.

I was surprised that when I showed up for our meeting he placed a stop watch on the table and indicated he would measure our fifteen minutes. Thankfully I was prepared and the timing worked. After the conclusion of our fifteen minutes this individual thanked me for being on time and commented that I had earned his respect to be able to qualify for future meetings.

In a future meeting we talked about time. He pointed out something very interesting to me. He observed that most people when they meet with a client or group meeting they feel a need to have it be at least an hour. He further pointed out that this was a pattern we grew accustomed to through our time in school,. The teacher told us it took one hour to learn math or social studies and so therefore that’s what we think it takes. And now when we meet with people we automatically assume it takes the same. When people plan on meeting for an hour they fill up an hour.

He then asked me to think back over our fifteen minute meetings and point out how much more we had been able to get accomplished because we were focused.

In all our business activities we are training people how to treat us and respond to our business and brand. How you use your time in meetings is a powerful teacher.

3)All effective meetings require preparation — Determine ahead of time what you would like your outcomes to be, your objectives, your questions and what you would like to have taught. Make sure you consider all possible questions and difficulties. As I observed and worked with the top business leaders mentioned about I found it interesting that their meetings were rarely brainstorming sessions to consider questions that they were paying other people to come up with solutions for. Most of the time these meetings were session where people presented their findings and answers they had already prepared and thought about.

As we work with top entrepreneurs and train them for success we encourage the same patterns. When you meet with a client you should have already considered their questions, challenges and objections. You should have answers to these that make sense. This is what will position you as the expert. No one wants to hire a brainstorming partner. They all want resources they can trust and benefit from. The more you can demonstrate competence in your relationship the more trust and confidence you will earn.

In addition, when it is time to meet with someone for the purposes of hiring, partnering or joint venturing the more clarity you have around what you need and can offer and how you will support and train that individual the more likely success is in the end.

While there is more more that could be said about meetings these are three of the most important things to get you started. Remember never take a meeting unless it has the potential to reward you for your time and effort and move your business forward.

Over the last two decades Douglas Vermeeren has conducted extensive first hand research into the lives of the worlds top achievers. He has the success strategies of top business leaders from Nike, Reebok, Fruit of the Loom, FedEx, KFC, United Airlines, Microsoft, Disney and others to share with you. ABC television and FOX Business refer to him as the modern Day Napoleon Hill. He has authored 3 books in the Guerrilla marketing series and is the CEO of Entrepreneur Influence . He is a regular featured expert on FOX, CNN, ABC, NBC, CTV, CBC, The Huffington Post, NY Daily News and others. Come listen to the Podcast Entrepreneur of Influence for more business ideas and support!

What does Carla Think about Business Networker?

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What does Carla think about Business Networker? You be the judge. More and more people are coming to use the fastest growing social networking site for Business.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjYkO8OHAxI&feature=youtu.be

Business Networker is the Premiere networking site for business owners, entrepreneurs and business innovators. Powerful Networking for Powerful People. For a free 30 day trial go to http://www.BusinessNetworker.com and use access code biznet87194

What does Jim Think about Business Networker?

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Have you started finding your business leads on Business Networker yet? Come by for a free trial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwt1q6RB6ow&feature=youtu.be

Business Networker is NOW LIVE!!!!

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Business Networker

Business Networker

Business owners now have an incredible place to connect and do business.If you have a small business, or if you are an entrepreneur or business innovator then you need to check out Business Networker. (www.BusinessNetworker.com) Business Networker is destined to become the top resource for business owners on the internet. Members of the premium community have the opportunity to use customized search engines to find highly targeted leads, the ability to create a store to sell their products or services and even tools to manage contacts and customers quickly and efficiently.

With members across the United States and Canada, Business Networker is quickly expanding its reach and will soon be available in the UK, Australia, South Africa and other parts of the English speaking world.

For more information go to http://www.BusinessNetworker.com To access a free 30 day trial use the pass code biznet87194

Business Networker Business tips #3

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These business tips are provided as a free service by Business Networker. They will help you with tips, tools and strategies to grow your business. 

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Have you ever wondered why you don’t have more leads?

Here’s the business tip of the week from Business Networker: In this episode Business Networker shares tips on how to make your networking more effective to create better connections and stronger relationships.

Business Networker is attracting more and more leads for your business

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Business Networker launches new Business tips video series

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Business Networker was created to help entrepreneurs and business owners create greater connections and success. As part of this mission to empower entrepreneurs we are pleased to announce the launch of the new business tips video series. In this ongoing series Business networker will share insights, strategies and quick tips with information to immediately help the entrepreneur.

Feel free to submit questions or suggestions of segments you would like to see or any tips of your own that you would like to share. You can forward these to me directly at douglas@businessnetworker.com

Business Networker is the Premiere networking site for business owners, entrepreneurs and business innovators. Powerful Networking for Powerful People. For a free 30 day trial go to http://www.BusinessNetworker.com and use access code biznet87194

In this episode Business Networker shares tips on how to make your networking more effective to create better connections and stronger relationships.